The Giraffe – a “High Blood Pressured” Mammal

Giraffe derives from the Arabis work “Xirapha”, meaning “one who walks swiftly”. While they are unable to maintain high speeds for long periods of time, they can run up to 35 miles an hour. This is useful to quickly move away from lions and other predators. On average giraffes can live from 20-28 years in captivity, and 10-15 years in the wild. There are 9 known subspecies living in various African regions of the family Giraffidae. The Angolan, Baringo, Kordofan, Masai, Nigerian, Nubian, Reticulated, Southern, and Thornicroft are all types of giraffes, and have different color patterns.

Giraffes begin their lives by falling 6 feet to the ground, and are roughly 6 feet tall at birth. The animal will continue to grow; most females average 14 feet tall and the males average 20 feet, making the giraffe the tallest land mammal in the world. Giraffes have just as many vertebrae in their neck as humans; however, each of the seven vertebrae is about 5 inches long giving them a neck roughly 6 feet long. These large animals will weigh anywhere from 3,000-4,000 (males), and 1,500-2,500 (females) pounds.

In order to get to that weight and size giraffes will consume roughly 77 pounds of food on average each day. Giraffes are herbivores, and seem to prefer twigs and leaves from the acacia tree which contain a great deal of water in the leaves. Luckily giraffes are able to go for days without water; this reduces their chance of being attacked by predators at a watering hole. However, when they do drink, an average adult giraffe will consume 12 gallons of water in one sitting. This is a challenging and dangerous task for a giraffe. In order to reach a watering hole they must sprawl their front legs to lower their neck and upper body. Once in this position, giraffes loose the advantage of being able to see predators approaching and are unable to quickly maneuver upright to sprint off if the need arises.

A giraffe’s tongue is close to 2 feet long, and they can use it clean their own ears. In addition, their heart is also almost 2 feet long, and will weigh in around 20-25 pounds. Do to their large size giraffes have one of the highest blood pressures of all mammals. Their heart must pump around 20 gallons of blood per minute, and their blood pressure is 2-3 times that of an average healthy human adult male.